Archive for June, 2013

One of the big things at Sweets and Snacks last month was miniaturized versions of larger treats. These mini versions were different from fun-sized candy bars that you see around holidays. Instead, they were unwrapped and packaged loosely in a larger bag.

The Hershey’s booth was passing out free samples of King Sized bags of Kit KatMinis. In the rest of the world, Nestle makes Kit Kats; in the U.S., they’re made by Hershey’s.

By my guess, it took about 4 Kit Kat Minis to equal one Kit Kat finger. Each little mini was stamped with the Kit Kat logo.

They tasted just like regular Kit Kats, only with a higher chocolate to crispy wafer ratio. The milk chocolate was uber sweet with a sour tinge to the finish – very Hershey’s in flavor.

The crispy wafer centers added a pleasant crunch and helped mitigate the super sweetness of the chocolate. I used to love Kit Kats as a kid, but they’re now too sweet for me (Kit Kat Darks are better in my book).

If you like regular Kit Kats, these should be a buy for you – unless you have portion control problems. The unwrapped format makes them easily poppable! An O.

Lemonheads turned 50 last year, and they’re celebrating with a fun little Limited Edition tin marking their 50 years of pucker power. It’s like an Altoids tin, only (duh) it’s filled with Lemonhead candies. I got one as a free sample from the manufacturer.

I had no idea Lemonheads have been around for so long! I always wound up with tons of the big jawbreaker sized ones at Halloween.

Air Heads Bites are a new product being handed out at Sweets and Snacks. We used to sell Air Heads as a fundraiser when I was in grade school, and I have nostalgic memories of tearing up Air Heads, wrapping the bits around my fingers, and licking my fingers until I was a sticky, sweet mess. Man, I was a gross kid…

If you’re unfamiliar with regular Air Heads, they’re flat strips of fruit-flavored chewy candy in a variety of flavors. My favorite was White Mystery, a sweet and tart citrusy flavor. Cybele’s got a review, if you want more detail.

Air Head Bites turned out to be flatted balls of candies slightly smaller in diameter than a Mentos (they’re made by the same company). Because of that similarity, I expected these to have a hard shell, as Mentos do.

Instead, the outermost layer was no different in texture than the rest of the treat, it was just smooth and shiny to start. That texture was just as if you’d balled up a bit of regular Air Head: a grainy chew with no stickiness.

The Bites came in five flavors: cherry, orange, lemon, watermelon, and blue raspberry. Cherry (red) tasted like a standard artificial cherry candy, sweet and red-fruity with a bit of a tannic cherry bite to it.

Orange was a mild citrus with no tartness, while lemon (yellow) tasted like a Lemonhead and brought a little edge of tartness that hit the back of my throat.

Watermelon (green) tasted just like watermelon candies, or barely at all like real watermelon. Here it was so juicy that it made me salivate and had sweet floral notes.

Finally, blue raspberry was the classic Air Head flavor, named after something not found in nature. It had a slightly seedy candied raspberry flavor.

These guys tasted just like their original Air Head counterparts but without the sticky mess, making them a much more portable version of the treat. I would’ve love these as a kid, but I think I’ve now outgrown Air Heads’ powerfully sweet and artificial flavors. An O.

Today is the 4th of 4 new Ritter Sports that I got as free samples from Euro-American Brands at Sweets and Snacks. The Coconut was described on the wrapper as “with tropical coconut flakes in a coconut and milk filling.”

This was a standard 16-squared filled Ritter – a milk chocolate shell with a textured white coconut filling. The milk chocolate was the usual Ritter fare, sweet with dusky caramel notes, softly pliable, and thickly melting.

The coconut flakes were tiny and lightly crunchy. They added a great grit and a sweetly nutty coconut flavor with a floral undertone. The rest of the filling was sweet with the dairy notes of a fresh buttercream.

I found this Ritter to be delicious. It was, however, quite rich, so that a square or two was enough to satisfy. An OM.

I really enjoyed the Ritter Sports that I nabbed at the Expo, and I can’t wait to see them on the shelves here in the U.S. Especially the Cocoa Mousse one!

Miniature Snickers is actually a real thing; just not in the above format. Mars showed off their new Snickers Unwrapped at the Expo. They were like regular Snickers shrunken down into tiny bite-sized cubes.

but in the opposite direction. It features a whopping 36 itty-bitty squares, each stamped with a miniaturized version of the Ritter Sport logo on its teeny top. The square mountains were solid chocolate of the 73% cacao variety.

The cubes were dense and thick to bite into. The dark chocolate tasted dense as well. I found it earthy and even a bit muddy with a deep Dutched cocoa flavor.

I found this to be a fun departure from the usual Ritter Sports, but to be honest, I mostly love Ritter Sports for their delicious fillings. Ritter’s dark chocolate was nice enough, but it wasn’t as special as other brands of dark chocolate that have more flavor complexity. An OM.

First up, the Milk Chocolate with Cocoa Mousse, a new Ritter bar that I’m hoping will work its way into permanent U.S. distribution. It was revolutionary because, unlike the regular 16 square Ritter, it took the same total area and subdivided it into 9 larger squares.

That change was made to leave the cocoa mousse, or “fine whipped cocoa creme”, more room to be fluffy. As you can see, the inside of each of 9 squares was filled with a dark chocolate filling. It made for a lovely visual contrast against the lighter brown of the milk chocolate shell.

The cocoa mousse filling wasn’t noticeably fluffy in the same way that real mousse is, but it was definitely not solid. Instead, it was something in between the two – more airy than solid chocolate but firmer than real mousse.

The milk chocolate shell was thick and creamy with a caramelly sweetness. The cocoa mousse in the center had an incredibly deep cocoa intensity. It tasted fudgey with a bittersweet edge.

I absolutely adored the incredible chocolate intensity of this bar. It’s a shame that it had 9 squares instead of 16, as mine is now nearly half gone. A ZOMG!